


Needs More Cats Though

by Lumeleo



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Fluff, Love Confessions, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-20
Updated: 2018-11-20
Packaged: 2019-08-26 16:55:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16685509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lumeleo/pseuds/Lumeleo
Summary: Sometimes, Otabek is a total old man. Other times, he is weirdly sappy in a way only he can be.Luckily, Yuri loves him anyway.





	Needs More Cats Though

In some things, Otabek was a total old man.

Not in a bad way, of course, not like Victor or Yakov. He wasn’t irresponsible and perverted or grumpy and unreasonable, nothing like that. However, there were times when Yuri wondered if he was actually a teenager at all. He might have even called Otabek boring in some ways, if not for the fact that he was Yuri’s friend and therefore couldn’t be boring by definition.

Social media was one area where this was obvious. Unlike most of the skaters they socialized with, Otabek was rather inactive in that regard. For one thing his profiles were all private, and even then he only rarely posted anything. Yuri had offered to help him, or at the least, had suggested Otabek should remove Victor from his friends list everywhere. After all, as Otabek’s most precious and important friend Yuri’s taste was impeccable, and he didn’t want that idiot ruining his Otabek. Well. Otabek, who was not Yuri’s, except he definitely belonged to Yuri more than to anyone else. Except maybe his family, but Yuri supposed he should allow for that. Otabek’s family weren’t that bad, he could share. He wasn’t even jealous that Otabek spent more time on video calls with his little sister than with Yuri whenever he was off doing competitions. After all, Yuri could actually have regular calls, while Otabek’s sister needed to see him signing.

The point being, Otabek was an old man about posting anything online. Which was why Yuri was rather surprised to notice Otabek had started to post a picture every day without fail.

They were regular pictures, the sort that wouldn’t have attracted any attention if they had been coming from anyone but Otabek, who usually posted perhaps once a week if that. Yuri didn’t want to bring it up, didn’t want Otabek to get it into his head that it was somehow weird and he should stop; after all, Yuri rather enjoyed the regular pictures of one of the cutest guys he’d ever met. However, that meant he had no answers to his questions, leaving him to analyze the pictures for any sort of clues.

There were no clues, not that Yuri could find any. They were just regular pictures, some of Otabek, some of random things in his life. Here was Otabek holding up a mug with his initial on it and no expression on his face, there was his sister drawing on a chalkboard, and quite a few were of cats. Yuri approved of the cat pictures. He’d made it very clear to Otabek that he was not allowed to pass by a cute cat without taking a picture, and apparently he had finally taken that to heart. Still, he was posting them on the same ridiculously regular schedule with the rest of his pictures. There was always one a day, at the same time of what was morning in Almaty, and never more or less. It was driving Yuri absolutely mad, and yet, he couldn’t afford to ask about it.

Finally, Otabek actually included a message with one of his pictures. It was as mysterious as the sudden stream of pictures. “Yura, look back.”

Yuri had to fight the urge to glance behind his shoulder. Instead, he scrolled down Otabek’s profile page, seeing nothing but the past pictures. Coming back up, he found nothing but the latest picture of Otabek, perfectly serious as he… held up a paper with a big crayon letter. Huh.

Yuri blinked. To think of it, he’d seen something similar before. Somewhere in Otabek’s other pictures.

Scrolling down, he found his suspicions confirmed. Every last one of Otabek’s daily pictures included a letter somewhere. The initial on his mug, the lines on his sister’s chalkboard, the corner of a newspaper or a store sign or any number of things in each of the cat photos. There were letters everywhere, so ever-present that it couldn’t be coincidental. Going back up to the latest photo, he started piecing together what was apparently a message.

The further he read, the more his puzzlement turned into something akin to embarrassment. Well, he was flushing, anyway. Once he reached the end of the regular pictures, he immediately dialed Otabek’s number. This couldn’t wait. “Yura?” No greeting, nothing. Clearly Otabek knew he had found the message.

“What is this about, Altin?” Yuri ground out his question through gritted teeth, trying to will his blush away. It wasn’t working.

“What do you mean?” Calm as ever, as expected. That was Otabek for you.

“Why are your photos spelling out…” He had to take a deep breath to read out the message he’d pieced together. “‘Yuri Plisetsky, I love you’?”

“I would think that is rather self-explanatory.” Otabek’s voice was still even, but Yuri was pretty sure he could hear a bit of nervousness in it. That was ridiculous, Otabek was never nervous. “I love you.”

“And why would you have to do something so ridiculous to tell me that?” That, more than anything, baffled Yuri. The statement itself, well, he hadn’t known that, but he could see it. Otabek never said anything he didn’t mean.

“I wanted to make it clear that I’m not just saying it on impulse. If it required a long-term effort, you can’t just brush it off as a joke.”

It was such an Otabek answer, Yuri couldn’t help but sigh. It was kind of adorable, but also kind of frustrating. “I swear, sometimes you’re even sappier than Victor. And I’m pretty sure he’ll bleed syrup when I finally give in to my temptations and stab him.”

“Not at all. If I were that sappy, I would have just written you a long and thought-out love letter.”

Yuri paused. The way Otabek said that, it didn’t sound like just an off-hand comment. “Let me guess. That was your plan B if I didn’t catch on?”

“I’m on the third draft.” Absolutely no shame.

“Well, you can hold onto that for the moment.” Yuri pouted, trusting that Otabek would feel his pout in spirit even if he couldn’t see it. “You made me wait for you so long for your stupid message, you can damn well wait for me to get my response together.”

“Of course.” Otabek was quiet for a moment. “Are you angry?”

“A little. You’d better keep up those cat pictures if you want me not to hate you.”

“Understood.” He could hear the hint of smile in Otabek’s voice, and that was fine. Everything would be fine, because this was Otabek, his Otabek, and everything to do with Otabek was always fine.

Even though he wanted to make Otabek wait as long as he had, Yuri knew that wouldn’t happen, not really. For one thing, Yuri posted pictures a lot more often, and he had no intention of slowing down just for Otabek. For another, Yuri’s profile was not private, so everything he posted was analyzed by thousands of eager eyes. There were only so many selfies he could post with unusual hand signs before someone would catch on. Indeed, he hadn’t gotten even halfway through Otabek’s name before his fans had collectively figured out that he was finger-spelling out a love confession backwards.

If anyone asked, he had only done it not to be too obvious. Otabek wasn’t going to ask, which was a good thing, since Otabek would have pointed out he was the one who had taught Yuri what little sign language he knew.

Besides, all Otabek needed to know was that Yuri loved him back, too.


End file.
